Comment 445 for bug 269656

It is certainly possible to have a free service. Look at the Affero General Public License. That deals with services. You could say that those are free services.

The problem is that "free service" is not very much defined. What makes something a free service? Apparently, the AGPL does. But is that the only free "web services license"? Are Terms of Service allowed in a free service?

Also, do we really want to have access only to free web services? If we define a free service as a service running on free software that is publicly available (basically what the AGPL does), then Google Search is definitely not free, since all information regarding their search algorithm is secret.

But does a free search engine exist? (seriously, I'd like to know) In the absence of free things, we use non-free things. Look at device drivers. Look at professional CAD software. Look at the ATM machine around the corner. Look at the security system of an airport. Even Richard Stallman uses these last two services, albeit grudgingly.

Until everything is free, you'll have to live with non-free stuff. That's how GNU was created by the way: slowly replacing everything in UNIX with a free replacement.